Putney – Sofka Zinovieff (Bloomsbury Circus – £14.99) From the moment Ralph meets nine-year-old Daphne – dark, teasing, slippery as mercury – he is consumed by an obsession to make her his. But he is twenty-five and Daphne is only a child, and even in the bohemian abandon of 1970s London their fast-burgeoning relationship must be kept a secret. It is not until years later that Daphne is forced to confront the truth of her own childhood – and an act of violence that has lain hidden for decades.